Temporal biodiversity change following disturbance varies along an environmental gradient

Aim
The diversity and composition of natural communities are rapidly changing due to anthropogenic disturbances. Magnitude of this compositional reorganization varies across the globe, but reasons behind the variation remain largely unknown. Disturbances induce temporal turnover by stimulating species colonizations, causing local extinctions, altering dominance structure, or all of these. We test which of these processes drive temporal community changes, and whether they are constrained by natural environmental gradients. Moreover, we assess to what degree identity shifts translate to changes in dominance structure.

Location
Finland

Time period
Observations 1985-2006, disturbance history >140 years.

Major taxa studied
Vascular plants.

Methods
We investigated temporal turnover of boreal forest understory in response to disturbance, here forest management, along a soil fertility gradient. We disentangle the roles of species gains, losses and abundance changes in drivin...